Trump's offshore wind ban blocked for 5th time by US judge

Mark Chediak, Bloomberg News on Feb 2, 2026

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A U.S. judge ruled that a wind farm being developed by Orsted A/S off New York’s Long Island can resume work halted by the federal government, the fifth such court win for an industry President Donald Trump has sought to cripple.

The Sunrise Wind project, which was losing $2.5 million a day while it sat idle, would “be irreparably harmed” unless work is allowed to continue during the legal fight, U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth concluded Monday. Orsted said it has spent $7 billion on the development, which is 45% complete.

Lamberth granted a request by Denmark-based Orsted for a preliminary injunction blocking the government’s stop-work order, saying the Trump administration’s decision was likely arbitrary and capricious. Last month, the same Washington-based judge allowed Orsted to resume development of its Revolution Wind project off the coast of Rhode Island.

“I find that Sunrise Wind faced greater harms by a total pause of construction than the government faces from continued mitigation efforts while the construction continues,” said Lamberth, who was appointed to the court by former President Ronald Reagan.

Orsted’s wind farms and three others off the U.S. East Coast were halted Dec. 22 by the Interior Department, which claimed the projects posed national security risks it didn’t disclose. All five, including those owned by Dominion Energy Inc., Equinor ASA and Iberdrola SA, have prevailed in legal challenges so far.

Signe Sorensen, an analyst for renewable energy research firm Aegir Insights, said the court victories by the companies make “it very obvious that the stop-work orders are of a politically motivated campaign against offshore wind with no rational or legal basis.”

In a statement, the White House echoed the administration’s responses to earlier court losses and said it will keep fighting in court.

“The Trump administration has paused the construction of all large-scale offshore wind projects because our number one priority is to put America First and protect the national security of the American people,” said Taylor Rogers, a spokeswoman for the White House. “The administration looks forward to ultimate victory on the issue.”

Trump’s campaign against offshore wind energy is part of his wider effort to roll back Biden-era climate policies and to champion fossil fuels. The stop-work orders came after Trump froze permitting a year ago for all wind projects on federal land or waters, though a judge ruled his decree was illegal. Offshore wind developers said they’ve lost millions of dollars due to the work stoppages and delays.

Despite the legal setbacks, Trump’s attacks have led to a significant pullback in U.S. offshore development plans that had been promoted by the Biden administration, which sought to bring more than 30 gigawatts of capacity online by 2030. Only about one-fifth of that amount is now likely to be built, according to BloombergNEF. (One gigawatt is equivalent to the capacity of a traditional nuclear reactor.)

The Interior Department argued the stop-work orders were justified because of national security concerns. It didn’t provide details in court filings, but claimed the Department of Defense provided new classified information about advances in “adversary technologies” that “could raise national security issues with offshore wind projects.”

Lamberth, who reviewed the non-public classified information, said the administration failed to explain which features or activities related to the Sunrise Wind project were implicated in the new security issues. The government also didn’t explain how these concerns differ from the same ones that the developers committed to mitigating in an earlier agreement.

Sunrise Wind is expected to start delivering electricity to New York later this year. Once completed in 2027, Sunrise Wind’s turbines would deliver enough energy to power more than 600,000 homes in New York.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, said the court ruling is a win for the state’s workers and its clean energy goals.

“The Trump administration tried to shut down this fully permitted project under a bogus claim of national security,” the governor said. “But energy independence is national security.”

Orsted, in a statement, said the ruling will allow it to “restart impacted activities immediately.” It also said “Sunrise Wind will determine how it may be possible to work with the U.S. administration to achieve an expeditious and durable resolution.”

The company’s American Depositary Receipts rose as much as 3.3% Monday.

The case is Sunrise Wind v Burgum, 26-cv-28, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia (Washington).

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